I'm back

My life has gotten so busy!!!

An opportunity came up to garden like crazy. An art friend gave me the name of a lady who was going to put her house on the market. She has (had because they are now in my yard) a yard full of flowers that had become somewhat overgrown. Digging up four pickup loads of flowers and many days of putting them in the yard was quite an ordeal. It was so worth it! Next spring will be wonderful.

I love the larkspur.

This area is so sunny with all the yellow.

I love my miniature roses.

I am about halfway through my Photoshop class. It is much harder than I expected but I am learning a lot. We will see if it pays off as time goes bye. I also cashed in my Christmas gift certificate and got a Bamboo pad and pen. I am excited about using it.

I have started two classes on Artists for the Round Table. One based on the book Create Your Own Hand Printed Cloth by Rayna Gillman and the other based on the book The Decorated Page by Gwen Diehn. I am enjoying both of these workshops.

I carved the stamp for the above piece.

These are some of the beginning pages of my new journal.

I am wrapping up a class on Altered Books (AB101) given generously by Elizabeth of the Altered Book Lover blog. I learned a lot in this class which has made starting The Painted Page workshop so much easier. Thanks Elizabeth!

One of the spreads I am learning to make.

Buried Treasures- - -What I have been doing in 2008

Seth Apter of http://thealteredpage.blogspot.com/ has started a challenge to find buried treasures in our blogs. I think this is a great idea as it is so hard to look back through just found blogs. This one of my favorite posts that I have done.

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This year has been a breakthrough for me. I am trying new things and trying to release my inner muse (it thinks I have lost it).

I bought a new tiny camera that I can easily take with me wherever I go. The week I bought it I headed to Kauai and took over 1200 shots. I was in heaven!

I make a lot of what I call "stones". They are small things that I can build on. I normally have no idea of what I am going to do with them but I can't seem to stop once I begin.

Fabric beads (mostly polyester) rolled and heated with a heat gun.

Made with fabric and glue.

Pipe cleaners wrapped with fabric.

My second group exchange was a post card challenge. No theme to this one, but since I had just come back from Hawaii fish seemed logical.

All the cards are made from cotton scraps with just a few emblishments.

I participated in my first art exchange with my mixed media group. It was a "skinny book" and our theme was "woman".

I used paper towels and dyed them with old markers. Then I drew on them with india ink and added crystals.

I have a wonderful source for upholstery fabrics. I made a number of purses, designed one myself, sold a few, and taught a couple of classes.

I discovered felting machines. A friend came over for a play day and brought this wonderful machine that she had found at a quilt show in Chicago. She let me try it and I was hooked. I bought my own the same week. This is one of my favorite things to do. I haven't done much quilting since I bought it.

These are all 4" by 6".
I used silk on some and polyesters on others.

In our mixed media group we do some mini workshops. One day a member, Debbie, show us how to do a type of free form quilting. We worked up rectangles and then slice them up and put them back together.

I found some wonderful silk leaves and made some small art pieces.

Most of the leaves are silk but the backgrounds are a blend.